ScaleX.ai – The AI Song & The AA-ISP Digital Sales World

This year’s AA-ISP Digital Sales World was a bit of an eye-opener for me as can be seen and heard in the lyrics of this song–The AI Song. Twitter #DSW2018, AA_ISP.

“Artificial Intelligence seems more valuable than the real thing” and “there’s no bot who can replace, no algorithm could ever imitate, the touch of a warm hand to shake, the friendly smile that floods your face, the sense of hope that we create, when we say there may be a solution…”. Click here to watch the AI Song

Overall, there seems to be a fear that “AI will eliminate over my job”.

I personally think John Barrows captured it best when he posted on this blog I wrote in December, “AI is going to make good reps great, great reps unstoppable and average reps irrelevant”, John Barrows

We agree. So as a sales professional you need not be afraid, but you better learn how to talk on the phone, leverage AI, become a better seller to ensure that you aren’t average!

My observations from AA-ISP Digital Sales World 2018:

Steve Richard, ExecVision Call Camp – Steve played some brilliant sound bites and provided intimate feedback on how to get the buyer to share their cell phone, how to lead with insights at the start of the call vs. at the 3 minute and 52 second mark after the prospect says “take me off your list”, and yet, the audience of primarily millennials glazed over, and I didn’t see a lot of notes being taken. Why? My personal opinion, this generation isn’t used to talking on the phone to drive interest in a product or service, they are used to sending emails.

Chris Beall, CEO of ConnectAndSell, shared on the topic of “Real AI for Real Sales” – Chris talked about how he was programming AI back in 1968 when many in the room weren’t even born yet, and that the intent of AI for sales is not to replace the human in the loop, but to empower them to be better than ever.

Bob Perkins, Co-Founder of the AA-ISP, says this is the year of “personalization” – Shared on several occasions that last year was the year of sales training, this is the year of personalization.

Lori Richardson, CEO of ScoreMoreSales and Champion of Women In Sales – shared that we’re making progress, but there is still a long way to go. After the conference, I showed Alice Heiman my new book – ScaleX.ai, Multi-Channel Sales Acceleration, and she observed that “you need more women contributors in your book”. I agree, and we all need to be conscious of ensuring that we empower women in sales to continue to do great things. Mr. Wonderful from the Shark Tank says that women are outperforming men in his portfolio, one of the top VPs at GE that I heard on a Jeffrey Hayzlett interview talked about the power of women in sales leadership, and they are right – let’s make this the year of personalization PLUS Women Sales Pros!

Amit Bendov, Gong.io’s CEO – shared what we’ve known for decades… Reps who listen better win more deals. Reps who ask better questions win more deals. Reps who get a larger audience on their calls? You guessed it, they win more deals too! Some “industry experts” in the room I heard say “what’s the big deal, we already know this”?! ANSWER: The big deal is that for the first time every, Gong, ExecVision, Chorus, and others are turning the “lights on” in a dark room. By illuminating the conversation, and providing coaching as a service, companies can now work with their under-performers to coach them to becoming top performers by focusing on what’s going on “inside the conversation”.